Samsung says it's 'working diligently' as fifth replacement Note 7 burns

[Eugene]

Source: The Verge

Samsung says it's 'working diligently' as fifth replacement Note 7 burns

This time in Texas
by Jordan Golson Oct 9, 2016, 5:03p

Another replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has caught fire, this one in Houston, Texas. Daniel Franks was at lunch with his daughter and wife when their replacement caught fire while sitting on the table, he told The Verge in an interview. It had been replaced at a Best Buy store in late September.

Franks said that his eight-year old daughter regularly plays Minecraft on the phone and wondered what could have happened if she was holding it or it was in his pocket or sitting on a nightstand.

This is the (1, 2, 3, 4) fifth replacement Note 7 that has caught fire in the US in the past week that we know of. It seems likely that there are more. AT&T has stopped selling the phones entirely, while the US Consumer Product Safety Commission says it is "moving expeditiously" to investigate, though perhaps even that isn’t quickly enough.

For it’s part, Samsung has issued a statement saying it is investigating the fires, though it has yet to determine that a "product safety issue exists." It’s possible that Samsung is letting US regulators take the lead on the investigation after it was criticized for launching its initial recall of the Note 7 without going through the CPSC.

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Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/9/13219878/samsung-galaxy-note-7-replacement-fire-fifth-statement

[TexasProgresive]

1. So is it a defect in the battery that is shorting it out or

a defect in the phone itself that is shorting the battery. Lithium batteries are notorious for over heating is shorted. I have yet to read of what actually is causing the problem. Since the replacement phones are burning, the question is, are they really a different design?

[MicaelS]

2. Probably the battery.

The batteries have circuit boards inside them to regulate charging. They're not simple paste batteries like alkaline. This is a consequence of going to non-removal batteries. Apple, Samsung and others are in a race to see who can build the thinnest phone, so out goes the removable batteries, along with the audio jack.

If the batteries were removable they could simply ship new batteries.

[TexasProgresive]

3. So the replacement phones had the same batteries- not smart Samsung.

Burn a plane in the air and that will be the end of Samsung

[MicaelS]

5. This link shows possible causes.

[backscatter712]

6. Battery supplier is probably cutting corners.

Maybe they're not programming the battery's microcontroller properly, or they aren't putting the correct amounts of stabilizers into the electrolyte (which results in hydrogen gas being generated by bad batteries, followed by exploding like Roman candles).

Samsung seems to be getting their Note 7 batteries from the lowest bidder...

[Agschmid]

4. #ShotOniPhone

[moondust]

7. Oh well...

Last edited Sun Oct 9, 2016, 09:08 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe they couldn't afford to do thorough quality control after the CEO took his $5 million bonus.

Quality control? What's that?